Anakreontiker

Anakreontiker, German poets mostly writing in the middle of the 18th c., whose poems were avowedly based on ‘Anacreon’, i.e. on 60 Anakreonteia, largely pseudo-Anacreontic odes, published in France by Henri Estienne (1531-98) in 1554. Though stylistically often scarcely distinguishable, the best poems treat the themes of love, wine, nature, and friendship with elegance, charm, and wit. They are playful products of the imagination, sometimes sung at convivial gatherings in Horace's spirit (‘carpe diem’). They have been classified under the literary rococo (see Rokoko). Their virtues are formal and a reaction against prevailing conventions. The principal German Anacreontic poets were Hagedorn, Gleim, J. N. Götz, Uz, Ramler, and Zachariä. Various other poets, including G. E. Lessing and Goethe, wrote poems in this manner.